During a visit to Switzerland in September, the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, answered some questions from members of the public. The following translation of one of those questions and Merkel’s answer is based on this Die Welt transcript:

Madam Chancellor, you talked just now about your responsibility for the refugees. Another responsibility is to protect us here in Europe. Most of the refugees from Syria, and the refugees from other countries, have a Muslim background. The gentleman referred earlier to a great fear in Europe about this Islamization, which is happening more and more. How are Europe and our culture to be protected from Islam?

I think, first, that Islamism and Islamist terror are phenomena that, of course, occur predominantly in Syria, Libya and northern Iraq, but to which, unfortunately, the European Union has contributed large numbers of combatants. So we cannot say this phenomenon has nothing to do with us, because these are people, often very young people, who have grown up in our countries and we have helped make them what they are.

And thirdly, of course, we also have this debate about there being many Muslims in Germany, we have the debate about whether Islam belongs in Germany. But when there are four million Muslims here, I think there is no longer a debate about whether Muslims belong in Germany but Islam does not, or whether Islam also belongs in Germany.

And if there is anything I miss, I should not reproach someone for being a practising Muslim, but rather that we should have the courage to say we are Christians and have the courage to enter a dialogue. And then we also have, please, the tradition, to go to church once in a while, to know the Bible a bit, and perhaps to be able to explain a painting in the church.

And if in Germany you asked [pupils] to write essays to explain the meaning of Pentecost, I assume that Christian knowledge in the West would leave a lot to be desired. And then to complain that Muslims know their Qur’an better, I find that comical. Perhaps this debate will make us go back to our own roots and learn a bit about ourselves.

And so I find this debate very defensive. You have to be ready to counter terrorist threats, but European history is anyway so full of horrific conflicts that we should be very careful about complaining when something bad happens somewhere else. We have to oppose that, we have to try to fight that, but we have absolutely no grounds for greater pride, I have to say. I say that now as German Chancellor.

To sum up Chancellor Merkel’s world view: Europe shares the blame for Islamic fundamentalism and Islamic terrorism; Islam and Muslims are integral to Germany; Muslims are more devout than Christians, so Christians are in no position to carp about Muslims; Europeans and European civilization are nothing special. Asked to defend Europe, Merkel trashes it.

It’s a world view shared by nearly all current European governing parties but completely rejected by Europe’s nationalist parties. You get what you vote for…

[My thanks to M, a native German speaker, for his invaluable help with the translation.—JR]